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At least 20 people have been killed in a car bomb explosion outside a bank in the southern Afghan province of Helmand

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Updated: 6:36 AM EDT Jun 22, 2017

The governor of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province has raised the death toll in the suicide car bombing outside a bank there to 29, saying most of those killed in the explosion were civilians.Hayatullah Hayat, the provincial governor, says the attack on Thursday outside the Kabul Bank in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, also wounded 60 people.However, there were reportedly many Afghan National Army soldiers inside the bank at the time of the explosion. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province has been at the center of bitter battles between the Afghan security forces, aided by NATO troops, and the Taliban, who are believed to control nearly 80 percent of Helmand’s countryside.

KABUL —

The governor of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province has raised the death toll in the suicide car bombing outside a bank there to 29, saying most of those killed in the explosion were civilians.

Hayatullah Hayat, the provincial governor, says the attack on Thursday outside the Kabul Bank in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, also wounded 60 people.

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However, there were reportedly many Afghan National Army soldiers inside the bank at the time of the explosion. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province has been at the center of bitter battles between the Afghan security forces, aided by NATO troops, and the Taliban, who are believed to control nearly 80 percent of Helmand’s countryside.